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Thursday, October 4, 2012

September Recap/October Goals

September Goals1. Spend some money on the house! Fail. I still want to do some of this, but I'm aiming to do it with used stuff over a longer period of time ($) rather than running down to IKEA and taking care of everything at once ($$$). Plus, we need to focus on nursery stuff instead! Here's what my list was:

"built in" bookshelves and desks (also means new computer chairs)

enough bookshelves to hold all our books

solve the linen storage problem (move or purchase a cabinet for the upstairs hallway, purchase one or two leatherette storage ottomans for the bedroom)

reupholster the dining chairs and fix the loose seats

And what it is now:

new to me computer chair (I currently use a chair from the kitchen table, and ow)

enough bookshelves to hold all our books

solve the linen storage problem (move a cabinet to the upstairs hallway, purchase a used storage ottomans for the bedroom)

fix the loose seats on the kitchen chairs

crib, dresser/changing table, rocking chair for nursery

2. Research and book childbirth and prenatal yoga classes, research and choose a pediatrician, and begin researching daycare options. Fail all around! However, I don't need to worry about some of these things now, as the situation has been taken care of. :)

3. Start considering alternative financial arrangements, and do some stuff I put off. I actually asked in the original post, "what if I deliver early or am put on bedrest?" See, I was trying to be prepared! In actuality, I didn't have time to actually consider anything, because I was admitted to the hospital only a few days after writing the post. Luckily, we had set up our lives to not need my salary - it mainly goes towards savings, so doing with 60% of it for now is not a hardship. The one thing I didn't get to that we really need to remedy is drawing up wills including determining who will care of little Baby M in the event something happens to me and Peanut.

4. Set an entertainment budget and stick to it. I did pretty well on this, mainly because I only had time to do one thing (treat my mom to a place I really wanted to take her) and then I had a baby. So now by default our entertainment budget is shot for a long time! :)

5. Start doing some stockpiling. Success! At least if you count breast milk. But aside from that, I've been clipping coupons and stocking up on baby wipes whenever they go below $2 a pack (is that a good price? It seems like a good price...). I'm not sure about stocking up on diapers yet; who knows what size she'll wear and I wanted to do cloth diapers anyway. But I'm also starting to plan freezer meals for when she comes home and I did get a bunch of my usual personal care stuff on sale so I don't need to worry about that for a while.

October Goals1. Stay on top of medical bills. I want to make sure to pay all the bills that come in as soon as possible so they don't get turned over to collections (it seems like medical bills get turned over faster than anything else!) and I also want to make sure we are charged only for things that actually happened (it seems like medical bills are frequently inaccurate!). 2. Watch food spending. Hopefully this won't be too hard, given that for the most part we are eating free meals at Ronald McDonald or from the hospital cafeteria. Mostly, I want to make sure I'm not buying a bunch of food for home and then throwing it away. 3. Start planning for when Baby comes home. Planning the nursery, figuring out what our schedules might look like, stocking up on baby supplies, freezer cooking so I don't have to worry about dinners, and learning how to balance going back to work with visiting the hospital every day - welcome to my new life. 4. Take advantage of paying out our deductible. With a preemie, it's likely that we'll be maxing out our deductible for the first few years of her life - but just in case, this is also a great chance for us to get in any doctor's appointments for ourselves. We're both going to the dermatologist for skin cancer screenings and little things we've put off, and I will have my annual physical as well as my c-section follow up. We also will both get a flu shot, and Peanut will get the whooping cough vaccine (I already had mine this year). Anything else you can think of?5. Take a break. I am not to the point of being run ragged - I am making sure to take care of myself, sleep enough, take vitamins, eat good food and drink lots of water. I can't hold the baby if I'm sick, so I WILL NOT GET SICK. Still, being at the hospital every day can take a toll, so I want to make sure I take time to do something fun as well, preferably with Peanut. We didn't have a chance to talk about how having a baby might change our relationship, and I want to make sure we keep our marriage strong during this hard time and during the easier times that will come. After all, Baby M will definitely not want to live with us in about 18 years - but I want to make sure Peanut and I still want to live with each other by then!

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Welcome! I enjoy reading and writing about personal finance among other topics. I'm not here to give advice, so take anything I recommend with a grain of salt and after seeking legal, financial, or other professional advice.